Shower head



Nov. 4, 1941.

H. LEWIS ET AL 'SHOWERHEAD Filed Feb. 11, 1939 INVENTOR. LfW/J Patented Nov. 4, 1941 2,261,500 SHOWER HEAD Howard B. Lewis, Venice, and Bruce Burns, Santa Monica, Calif.-

Application February 11, 1939, Serial No. 255,918

2 Claims.

This invention relates to and has for an object the provision of an improved shower head and method of inexpensively and advantageously making the same of flexible, compressible and resilient material such as soft rubber, so that when the head is used as a part of a portable bath spray set the entire unit will be made of soft rubber and may therefore be noiselessly handled, will not chip or mar finished surfaces when dropped or knocked thereagainst and will generally prove more convenient, comfortable and safe as to its use than metal heads, and, moreover, when used as a shower stall fixture will prevent injury to the bathers as is often the occasion where metal heads are used.

One of the purposes of this invention is to provide a one-piece soft rubber shower head in which the pressure of the water therein will not distort the head to an extent that will interfere with the operation of the head to produce the desired spray pattern.

Another purpose of this invention is to provide an improved joint for attaching a shower head to a pipe or tube as the case may be, which joint is simple as to construction, reliable in operation and substantially concealed.

We have shown a preferred form of shower head in the accompanying drawing, embodying our invention, subject however, to modification within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of our invention.

Referring to the drawing:

, Figure 1 represents a fragmentary side elevation of a bath spray set having a shower head made in accordance with this invention;

Figure 2 represents a large vertical sectional view of the shower head as taken on the line 22 of Figure 3;

Figure 3 represents a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 33 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 represents a fragmentary sectional view taken on the plane of line 4-4 of Figure 3 and showing the method of severing portions of the head to open the spray or jet orifices;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary plan view of the head as shown in Figure 4 and illustrating the method of cutting off portions of the head to open the spray orifices; and

Figure 6 is a plan view of the completed head showing the pattern and arrangement of the spray orifices.

The embodiment of this invention shown in detail in the accompanying drawing comprises a hollow soft rubber body I of circular cross secbeing extended into the open end of the body and securely held in place by means of inner and outer joint members 5 and 6. The inner joint memher is in the form of a cylindrical bushing inserttion, open at its inner end and closed at its outed into the tube 3 and provided at its outer end with an outwardly extended annular flange I which will distend the rubber end of the tube as at 8 so as to form an obstruction to prevent withdrawal of the tube from the head. The other member 6 is in the form of a ring which is tightly engaged in an annular groove 9 in that portion of the head which surrounds the tube whereby such portion of the tube is held against such stretching as would permit accidental withdrawal of the tube.

The relatively thick outer wall 2 is provided upon its inner side with a series of pockets or depressions l I defining between them a net Work of integral and intersecting ribs 12 which reenforce the structure yet permit the water to enter the depressions or pockets ll so that it may be discharged through spray passages or orifices [3 extending through the remaining thickness of the wall 2. The outer surface of the wall 2 is formed with a series of bosses or protuberances M of circular cross section and the orifices l3 extend through these protuberances.

. In the forming of the shower head of this invention, the body portion I, depressions ll, ribs [2, orifices I3, and bosses 14 are all molded at the same time and when removed from the mold as by being blown therefrom with an air blast, the outer ends of the boss are imperforate as shown in Figures 4 and 5. In other words, the mold members not here shown, which form the passages or orifices [3, are not of suflicient length to form the orifices clear through the wall 2. This is necessary due to the fact that if the mold members for forming the orifices were allowed to contact the other metal parts of the mold as would be the case if the orifices were formed clear through the wall 2, the outlet ends of the orifices would be plugged or obstructed by small bits of rubber which would run between such metal parts of the mold during the curing process. For this reason, the orifices are formed blind and subsequently the outer ends of the bosses are cut off to open the orifices and to provide clean and unobstructed discharge ends for said orifices. One way of cutting oif these portions takes into consideration the use of a perforated plate or holder l which is placed over the projections or bosses M as shown in Figures 4 and 5 in order that the head may be moved against a rotary or other suitable knife indicated at l6 so that the outer ends of saidmembers as gauged by the thickness of said plate, may be cut off as shown in Figures 4 and 5, to open the orifices as aforesaid.

By forming the inner portion of the wall 2 of cellular or honeycomb form as provided by the pockets H and ribs l2, full access is had to the intake ends of the comparatively small spray orifices without weakening the structure to such an extent as cause it to distort under pressure of the water and either close or distort the orifices so that they would fail to produce the desired spray pattern.

Preferably, the depressions l l and orifices l3 are formed so that they have a 10 inclination whereby a comparatively large fiaring spray pattern will be formed. Moreover, it should be noted that the orifices are tapered or reduced in diameter towards their outlet ends whereby the spray jets will be sharp and separated from one another.

As shown in Figure 1, the spray head of this invention is made a part of the bath spray set, but it is obvious that said head may be used for other purposes or as a fixed head in shower stalls or put to any other spray uses as desired.

It will now be seen that by reason of the relatively thick outer end or wall of the spray head having spray openings or orifices therein which are relatively large and pocket-like for about half the thickness of the wall and for the remainder are in the form of minute passages, the desired spray pattern will be provided and the otherwise soft and flexible body will be sufiiciently stiffened at the outer end so that undesirable distortion and failure to produce the desired spray pattern will be prevented.

While this invention primarily deals with a one-piece soft rubber head it is obvious that the construction hereof particularly the cellular reenforcing formation of the inner portion of the end or outer wall of the head, and the bosses and orifices, readily lend themselves to advantageous use in heads formed of metal or other material and we do not wish to limit ourselves to the use of rubber exclusively in employing the novel shower head construction hereof. Moreover, it should be noted that the shape and arrangement of the depressions or pockets I l and of the ribs I2 may be varied as desired, provided pockets of some form and intersecting ribs are created in the inner portion of the outer wall or end of the head. Likewise, the bosses may be of various cross sectional shapes or in some instances may be dispensed with and a fiat outer face used and the number and degree of inclination of the orifices may be varied as desired.

We have found that shower heads constructed in accordance with this invention and of rubber will prove advantageous in that they may be readily, easily and inexpensively produced, will not chip or mar finished surfaces against which they may be dropped or struck, will not become misshapen or damaged when dropped or accidentally squeezed and will also afford other obvious advantages which attend the use of soft rubber.

It is important to note that the rubber shower head hereof will be self-cleaning in that the expansion and contraction of the rubber under water pressure will distort the head and by the resultant squeezing action, dislodge or force out dirt and scale particles which may become lodged in the orifices and on adjacent parts. This dislodgment of foreign matter may also be accomplished by manually squeezing or distorting the head whereby the resultant forces set up in the rubber will squeeze out or dislodge the foreign matter.

What we claim is:

1. A one-piece shower head constructed of soft rubber or like material and comprising a hollow body having an inlet at one end for affording communication between the interior thereof and a source of supply water under pressure, and means at the discharge end for discharging jets of water, said discharge end having the inner side thereof formed with a series of pockets spaced apart by intersecting ribs for reenforcing the flexible structure to prevent such distortion thereof under pressure of the water as would interfere with the formation of the desired spray pattern, said discharge end having a plurality of external bosses and provided with series of spray orifices extending from said pockets through said bosses.

2. A one-piece shower head constructed of soft rubber or like material and comprising a hollow body having an inlet at one end for affording communication between the interior thereof and a source of supply of water under pressure, and means at the discharge end for discharging jets of water, said discharge end having the inner side thereof formed with a series of pockets and intersecting ribs for reenforcing the flexible structure to prevent such distortion thereof under pressure of the water as would interfere with the formation of the desired spray pattern, said discharge end having a plurality of spray orifices extending therethrough from said pockets.

HOWARD B. LEWIS. BRUCE BURNS. 

